Panos Hawandjian, Executive Technical Leadership, Strategy and Growth

Executive technical leadership that scales and endures

More than two decades leading strategy and engineering across enterprises and startups. Continuity system design, cloud automation, disaster recovery and business continuity, hands on diagnosis of process, systems and tools, and a track record of mentoring high performers.

  • Designed Cloud Minus, an off grid continuity appliance and reference design.
  • Failed over a core IT footprint across 430 miles in under 9 minutes, with full failback.
  • Built automated VM provisioning for true self service infrastructure.
  • Aligns technology and business goals for measurable growth and operational clarity.
Based in Greater Los Angeles and Orange County, California, United States
BC and DR rockstar, worth his weight in gold.
Rob T.

About

Executive technical leader and strategist with a proven record of building, scaling, and transforming organizations. I align technology to business outcomes, resolve systemic issues, and foster high performance teams. My work spans Fortune 500 enterprises and startups, delivering results through vision, execution, and mentorship.

Focus areas

Executive technical management Business and technology strategy Enterprise architecture Process and tooling optimization Scaling operations Mentorship and leadership development

Principles

Resilience first, strategic clarity, measurable outcomes, ownership, and developing the next generation of leaders.

Executive technical management and mentorship

  • Diagnose and fix process, system, and tooling gaps that slow delivery or create risk.
  • Design roadmaps that connect architecture choices to financial and operational results.
  • Build and mentor teams, with clear standards, feedback loops, and measurable growth.
  • Operate comfortably at board level and on the ground with engineering and operations.

Innovation and systems

Cloud Minus

Off grid continuity appliance and reference design for rapid recovery. Built to harden critical operations, reduce risk during outages, and keep essential workloads available.

  • Secure, isolated operation with controlled connectivity.
  • Rapid failover and return to service with clear RTO and RPO targets.
  • Reference design adaptable to regulated and remote environments.

Strategic technology leadership

Partnering with organizations to design and execute strategies that connect technology investments to business outcomes, while mentoring and developing internal leadership.

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Experience

Founder and Chairman, Bizkey Hub and Havandjian Enterprises

December 2017 to present, Orange County, CA
  • Developed Cloud Minus, an off grid continuity appliance and reference design.
  • Leads enterprise cloud transformation and automation initiatives.
  • Advises on scalable infrastructures that deliver operational resilience.
  • Drives purpose driven technology and media innovations.

Technology Innovator and Enterprise Architect

Fortune 500 and startup environments
  • Closed large enterprise opportunities and grew key accounts.
  • Failed over an entire core IT footprint across 430 miles in under 9 minutes, with failback.
  • Built automated VM provisioning for self service infrastructure deployment.
  • Created a five step business continuity framework that improved recovery readiness.

Bizkey Hub

Self employed, 7 years 3 months
  • Founder, December 2017 to present, Orange County, California, United States.
  • Chief Executive Officer, December 2017 to May 2020, Beverly Hills, California.

Chairman of the Board, Havandjian Enterprises

January 2018 to present

Rooted in Armenian heritage, Havandjian Enterprises operates with generosity and resilience. The portfolio spans digital media, product development, research, legal representation, and outreach. We lead conversations that spark innovation, advancing technology solutions and social impact. Every project reflects a purpose driven philosophy that pushes boundaries to create digital, social, and business solutions that matter.

Vice President, Boomerang Solutions Group

January 2015 to September 2019, Greater Los Angeles Area

Accomplishments

Delivered enterprise class solutions, project management, and architecture. Managed customer projects, practices, and service relationships, and increased revenue across vital accounts.

Senior Systems Engineer, Moka5

July 2012 to December 2014, Redwood City, CA

Responsibilities

  • Qualified opportunities for product fit, demonstrated solutions, and led proofs of concept.
  • Transitioned customers from proof of concept to production deployment.
  • Managed technical requirements for long term success and support.

Accomplishments

  • Built strong customer relationships and successful deployments.
  • Supported the full sales cycle and executed successful proofs of concept.
  • Closed significant mid and large opportunities and guided production transitions.

Senior Sales Engineer, InMage Systems

August 2008 to June 2012, Santa Clara, CA
  • Won large enterprise customers and expanded existing accounts.
  • Delivered high quality product demonstrations and ensured successful deployments.
  • Designed global recovery solutions for Fortune 500 customers.
  • Note, acquired by Microsoft and now part of the Azure stack.

Indymac Bank

Two years seven months

DR and BCP Architect, March 2007 to August 2008

  • Implemented an end to end platform for data center recovery, including global load balancing, continuous data protection, and SAN replication.
  • Demonstrated failover between two data centers for management and development teams.
  • Built domain knowledge in mortgage banking applications and multi data center recovery.

Senior Systems Analyst, February 2006 to March 2007

  • Architected projects for both IT and business users, including self service password reset and a custom SMS tool for user logon and asset data.
  • Created roadmaps for automated account provisioning and evaluated recovery, dependency mapping, provisioning, audit and remediation, CMDB, and process tools.

Speaking and thought leadership

  • Keynotes on IT resilience, cybersecurity, cloud automation, and enterprise recovery.
  • Appearances at industry conferences and technical forums.
  • Executive advisement on architecture, disaster recovery, and automation strategy.

Skills

SDLCDisaster RecoveryVendor Management Data CenterProject ManagementDistributed Systems Enterprise ArchitectureVirtualizationSoftware Development SaaSTestingDatabasesStorage Managed ServicesServersManagement Enterprise SoftwareCloud ComputingBusiness Continuity SANSolution SellingOperating Systems Infrastructure

Licenses and certifications

Certified Penetration Testing Engineer, CPTE, Mile2, issued March 2020, expired March 2023, Credential ID 10536-162-727-4560.

Growth Hacking with Digital Marketing, version 7, 2020, Eazl.ai, issued March 2020, Credential ID 7589.

AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner, Amazon Web Services, issued September 2019, expired September 2022, Credential ID XXXQJJTGFFEQP93.

Palo Alto Networks Accredited Systems Engineer, issued July 2019.

Growth Hacking 2019, Eazl.ai, issued February 2019, Credential ID 2690.

Data Center Networking Credential 2018, Dell EMC, issued January 2019, Credential ID 34R8MGYRLIFF1QHCL.

Unstructured Storage Credential 2018, Dell EMC, issued January 2019, Credential ID Y76V2X7RLN1Q18SE.

Core Client Credential 2018, Dell EMC, issued December 2018, Credential ID YAFVBBJ6LBB11RCN.

Anonymous Browsing, StationX, issued October 2018, Credential ID 3-403.

Endpoint Protection, StationX, issued October 2018, Credential ID 4-326.

Hackers Exposed, StationX, issued October 2018, Credential ID 1-2077.

Network Security, StationX, issued October 2015, Credential ID 2-789.

Partnering to Win Certification PTWOS100, Polycom, issued May 2015.

Video Endpoints Sales Certification RPEOS100, Polycom, issued May 2015.

Video Endpoints Technical Certification RPEOT200, Polycom, issued May 2015.

VMware Certified Associate, Data Center Virtualization, VMware, Credential ID VMW-01581975W-00502610.

Recommendations

Rob T.
Panos is a BC and DR rockstar. He is worth his weight in gold when it comes to DR strategy and architecture. His knowledge makes him one of the industry’s best architects in BC and DR.
Alan F.
I recruited Panos for Indy Mac Bank. He became a high performer and was entrusted with increasing responsibility. He will go as far as he wants to professionally.
Ulysses S.
One of the brightest and most talented people I have worked with. His conception, workflows, creativity, and systems understanding make him an ideal systems wide architect. Friendly, articulate, and excellent to work with.
Raj H.
Detail oriented manager who watches the balance sheet without losing sight of strategy. A dedicated team player.
J. C. J.
He can create a vision and sell it across business and technology. He listens, adapts when needed, and drives forward.
Alejandro A.
Knows how to lead and motivate the team to deliver. Impressive as a coworker and as a supervisor.
Jack H.
Reliable and knowledgeable, patient, and willing to go above and beyond. A strong asset to any company.

Contact

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